Martin Amis Vs. Professors Everywhere

Martin Amis Vs. Professors Everywhere

The Times of London - of all papers - had a good piece by Alexi Mostrous on Martin Amis's 80,000 pounds a year from the U of Manchester, in exchange...

The Endowment Boom: A sign of Illness?

The Endowment Boom: A sign of Illness?

Inside Higher Ed has a report on university endowment growth last year. If you follow this topic the data won't surprise you. The rich got richer faster - Harvard and Yale, the two biggest, grew 23 percent and 28 percent respectively. The report includes a table showing that the smaller you are, the slower you grow, which of course is a familiar rule to those of us living in...

Cost Problems

Cost Problems

Everybody hates the incessantly rising costs of medical care. Commenting on the latest inflation numbers, the economist Dean Baker puts the cost of higher education in the same category.The major forces pushing the rate of inflation higher continue to be medical care and education. Medical care costs rose by 0.3 percent in December. They have risen at a 5.1 percent annual rate...

Education for the Few

Education for the Few

Business Week has published a piece with an excellent array of accessible statistics on the inequality boom in higher ed. It has a good first line too: "It's only fitting that Whitman College, Princeton's new student residence, is named for eBay (EBAY) CEO Meg Whitman, because it's a billionaire's mansion in the form of a dorm."The "Ivy League plus" educates 1 percent of university...

Family Income in Medical School

Family Income in Medical School

The American Association of Medical Colleges has published a study on "Diversity of U.S. Medical Students by Family Income" which shows that the majority of med students come from the top fifth of the population by family income. In addition, this number is actually growing, in spite of much official concern. The report concludes this way:A real concern is a possible increase...

Ditching the Majority

Ditching the Majority

No group helps itself by always favoring its fortunate few - or by using them as the index of its condition. College language and literature departments are a case in point. The Modern Languages Association devoted some discussion at its convention this year to the plight of the adjunct faculty member. When the plight of adjuncts initially surfaced ten or fifteen years ago,...

Why Duke Doesn't Matter

Why Duke Doesn't Matter

It's a question of numbers. All sorts of great people are part of the Duke community - no disrespect to them - but Duke's annual enrollment is a bit under 13,000 total, about half of whom are undergraduates.If you are interested in putting those numbers in perspective, this article about selective college admissions is a good place to start. The authors looked at the country's...